All entries for Monday 18 February 2019

Mendeley – Jonty Leese

One of the big challenges in stepping up from A-level to degree to post graduate is in academic writing and the need for accurate referencing. Many students use what they have always done and stitch a list of references together, hoping that their take on Harvard or AMA is correct. I’ve led on some training with my Secondary PGCE cohort introducing software called Mendeley. Now, for the uninitiated, Mendeley is a set of services (an account where your references are saved) which is accessed on multiple platforms and browsers and it has a plugin that pulls all this information into MS Word. This allows an accurate reference list to be created in a few seconds. The huge benefit is that most times you find a suitable journal it’s possible to take the reference details and pull it into your online account along with a copy of the pdf document (where available). Not only that but from Mendeley it’s possible to search their database of other references to ensure that you have all the details accurately recorded and stored.

All of this is stored online (up to 2 gig of space for free) with the ability to access it from anywhere in the world. Being able to annotate your files with colours and keywords means that “key word searching” is straightforward as it searches all your entries and annotations. This is ideal if you are trying to search quickly for that file where there was a reference to Malawi University, for example, without having to search all your files laboriously. It is possible to set up a group of like-minded individuals, for example Computer Science PGCE trainees, where references are shared with peers - good academic practice.

Looking forward, Mendeley allows the academic to establish their presence online - which can start to give you stats on how your academic “reach” is increasing. Furthermore, it identifies authors and journals which are potentially relevant to your research interests, ideal in expanding your knowledge, in depth and breadth of research.

To quote two of my trainees this year:

“I have found Mendeley brilliant! It has organised all my reading into one safe and portable space, so I can continue my research anywhere with Internet access. It has also helped me with my referencing, as this was one of my original worries about essay writing. I feel confident with Mendeley.“

And

“I would have spent the guts of an entire extra day focusing solely on referencing after I had written an essay. Mendeley has provided me with the actual ability to do this as I go, simply by clicking a few buttons and nothing more. Life-saver!”

Not only is it good academic practice to develop your skillset but I hope this has persuaded you to investigate Mendeley and go further.

Web links:

Mendeley: https://mendeley.com/

TWENTE University Help: https://library.itc.utwente.nl/papers/mendeley.pdf

Abigail Ball : 18 Feb 2019 09:14 |  Tags: Mendeley |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem